ADAM CLYMER

When I came back to Washington to be The Times' chief congressional correspondent in 1991, I was looking for a book subject, and Ted Kennedy stood out for two reasons.

Ted Kennedy is the only person alive who might know more than we do about Chappaquiddick, and he may not.

Democratic politicians have disliked things I've written, Republican politicians... if they all love you, you might as well be driving a Good Humor truck.

There's a Washington standard of casually putting things off the record. It's really gone too far. I don't know an easy way to turn it back.

Ted Kennedy's achievements as a senator have towered over his time, changing the lives of far more Americans than remember the name Mary Jo Kopechne.

Another thing that's quite different in writing a book as a practicing newspaperman is that if you look at what you've written the next morning and you think you didn't get it quite right, you can fix it.

The people who vote in the primaries are at the ideological edge of their party.

I thought writing about somebody current would be a little closer to what I'm used to doing.

He will not be a speaker mentioned much in history.

Another thing that's quite different in writing a book as a practicing newspaperman is that if you look at what you've written the next morning and you think you didn't get it quite right, you can fix it.

When I came back to Washington to be The Times' chief congressional correspondent in 1991, I was looking for a book subject, and Ted Kennedy stood out for two reasons.

Ted Kennedy is the only person alive who might know more than we do about Chappaquiddick, and he may not.

I thought writing about somebody current would be a little closer to what I'm used to doing.

There's a Washington standard of casually putting things off the record. It's really gone too far. I don't know an easy way to turn it back.

Democratic politicians have disliked things I've written, Republican politicians... if they all love you, you might as well be driving a Good Humor truck.

He will not be a speaker mentioned much in history.

The people who vote in the primaries are at the ideological edge of their party.

Ted Kennedy's achievements as a senator have towered over his time, changing the lives of far more Americans than remember the name Mary Jo Kopechne.